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Domestic abuse and housing series: a safe, affordable home for every survivor

Published date: 9 October 2024

A cosy home interior, showing a sofa with floral cushions and a window with drawn blinds in the background.

Charlie Berry

Policy Officer

Please note that this update contains references to domestic abuse.

Home is the foundation for our lives. It ought to be a place of safety where we can rest, grow and build our futures.

Sadly, for thousands of women each year, domestic abuse means that the place where they live has become unsafe. In our posts over recent weeks, we've highlighted the statistics on how many people – mostly women – find themselves homeless each year because of needing to leave an abusive partner. And we've heard stories from the women behind the numbers, who fought for themselves and their families to find new safe homes.

Leaving an abusive home and getting support from a local authority homelessness team to move into refuges or other temporary accommodation can be a vital first step towards a new life. However, for too many women this accommodation becomes far from temporary. A Shelter research report found that 6 in 10 homeless households have spent more than a year in temporary accommodation.

With a severe lack of truly affordable social homes and a household benefit cap which makes private renting impossible, survivors become stuck in limbo, unable to move on into a new settled home and begin rebuilding their lives.

Social homes rebuild lives

Every survivor should be able to access a safe, stable and affordable home in which to rebuild their life. Women who have left abusive partners are processing the trauma of their experience while dealing with the financial implications of becoming a single-earner household and often a lone parent as well.

This makes finding an affordable home very challenging.

42% of households becoming homeless due to domestic abuse are lone parents.

Social rent homes are the only type of truly affordable homes because rents are linked to local people's incomes. The typical social rent costs just a third of what a family would have to pay for a private rented home, so they can better afford life's essentials.

Social homes also offer stability through secure tenancies which can last a lifetime, meaning that families truly put down roots. Having a stable home means children can succeed at school and families can build friendships and support networks as part of a community.

This is in stark contrast to life in temporary accommodation, where instability is the norm. In our research into temporary accommodation, more than 6 in 10 homeless households report that they were given less than 48 hours' notice before their last move.

For many survivors of domestic abuse, social rent homes would be the best option for them and their families, giving them a new permanent place to live, grow and thrive. For people experiencing domestic abuse who are already in social housing, leaving an abusive household should never mean losing the security and affordability of a social tenancy. If they need to move for their safety, it should be possible to transfer to another social home.

But due to decades of government failure to invest in social rent homes, we have a severe shortage, meaning there simply aren't enough homes for survivors who need them. The government urgently needs to ramp up to building 90,000 new social homes a year, so that in future every survivor can access a truly affordable home. They can make immediate progress towards this target by:

  • committing to a new 10-year Affordable Homes Programme

  • changing the rules so that every large housing development must include at least 20% social rent homes

  • suspending Right to Buy

  • committing resources and funding to get councils building social homes again

Our new report Brick by Brick sets out in more detail how the government can get us back on track to building the social homes that survivors need.

The household benefit cap prolongs homelessness for survivors

In the absence of enough social homes, survivors are often expected to rent privately. But finding an affordable and safe new home in the private rented sector can be almost impossible. There's an urgent need to scrap the household benefit cap, which is preventing survivors from moving on with their lives right now.

The benefit cap is a ceiling on the total amount of benefits that a household can receive if they are in part-time work or not currently working. It applies regardless of family size and even if the youngest child is still under two, meaning their parent(s) would not ordinarily be expected to work. The cap level is shockingly low. Since its introduction in 2013, it has only gone up in line with inflation once. Due to cuts in 2016, the cap is still lower than where it was 11 years ago despite spiralling rents.

Recent statistics show that 123,000 households are now affected by the benefit cap. This number grew by 61% between February and May 2024. When benefits rates were increased in line with inflation in April, thousands of households missed out because they hit the frozen level of the cap.

The benefit cap is separate from other limits in the social security system, like the two-child limit which restricts benefits for families with three or more children. But families can be affected by both, leaving them with a completely inadequate income to care for their children.

It's especially hard for survivors of domestic abuse to work enough to escape the cap. Research from Women's Aid has found that the impact of years of psychological and physical harm can create severe barriers to work.

The benefit cap leaves families struggling to afford the cost of a home. Affected families face impossible choices between cutting back on essentials and keeping up with the rent. Child Poverty Action Group analysis found that, last year, a single parent with three children living in some parts of London and affected by the cap was forced to live on as little as £44 a week after paying their housing costs.

£44 a week: the amount a single parent with three children in some parts of London could be forced to live on last year.

And for homeless households – including survivors of domestic abuse – the benefit cap means that affected families fail private landlords' affordability tests (and sometimes even those of social landlords) for a new settled home, effectively trapping them in refuges and other temporary accommodation.

Already in 2022/23, there were 78 local authority areas where average housing association and/or council rents would be considered unaffordable for a benefit-capped family. When even the most affordable kind of housing is out of reach, survivors can face years stuck in temporary accommodation without knowing when they'll find a stable home.

You can read more about the urgent need to scrap the household benefit cap in our new joint briefing with Child Poverty Action Group and Women's Aid.

A future where every survivor can access a safe home

The new government has promised a strategy to halve violence against women and girls, and housing must be a key component.

Over the last month, we've showcased how survivors of domestic abuse are at the sharpest end of the housing emergency. The only sustainable solution is for the government to commit to building enough social homes: 90,000 a year for ten years.

Together, we campaign for a future where every survivor can access a safe, stable and affordable home, without spending months or even years stuck in temporary accommodation.

Join our campaign to end the housing emergency.

Support and advice 

If you need support or advice relating to this content, you can contact the below specialist helplines and organisations: 

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